Educational Programs

(Excerpts from EPA’s Citizen’s Guide to Groundwater Protection – 1999)

Many people have never heard of ground water. That's not really so surprising since it isn't readily visible -- ground water can be considered one of our "hidden" resources.
What Is Groundwater, and Where Does It Come From?
Actually ground water occurs as part of what can be called the oldest recycling program - the hydrologic cycle. The hydrologic cycle involves the continual movement of water between the earth and the atmosphere through evaporation and precipitation. As rain and snow fall to the earth, some of the water runs off the surface into lakes, rivers, streams, and the oceans; some evaporates; and some is absorbed by plant roots. The rest of the water soaks through the ground's surface and moves downward through the unsaturated zone, where the open spaces in rocks and soil are filled with a mixture of air and water, until it reaches the water table. The water table is the top of the saturated zone, or the area in which all interconnected spaces in rocks and soil are filled with water. The water in the saturated zone is called ground water. In areas where the water table occurs at the ground's surface, the ground water discharges into marshes, lakes, springs, or streams and evaporates into the atmosphere to form clouds, eventually falling back to earth again as rain or snow - thus beginning the cycle all over again.
Where Is Ground Water Stored?
ground water is stored under many types of geologic conditions. Areas where ground water exists in sufficient quantities to supply wells or springs are called aquifers, a term that literally means "water bearer." Aquifers store water in the spaces between particles of sand, gravel, soil, and rock as well as cracks, pores, and channels in relatively solid rocks. An aquifer's storage capacity is controlled largely by its porosity, or the relative amount of open space present to hold water. Its ability to transmit water, or permeability, is based in part on the size of these spaces and the extent to which they are connected.
Basically, there are two kinds of aquifers: confined and unconfined. If the aquifer is sandwiched between layers of relatively impermeable materials (e.g., clay), it is called a confined aquifer. Confined aquifers are frequently found at greater depths than unconfined aquifers. In contrast, unconfined aquifers are not sandwiched between these layers of relatively impermeable materials, and their upper boundaries are generally closer to the surface of the land.

 Does Ground Water Move?
Ground water can move sideways as well as up or down. This movement is in response to gravity, differences in elevation, and differences in pressure. The movement is usually quite slow, frequently as little as a few feet per year, although it can move as much as several feet per day in more permeable zones. ground water can move even more rapidly in karst aquifers, which are areas in water soluble limestone and similar rocks where fractures or cracks have been widened by the action of the ground water to form sinkholes, tunnels, or even caves.
How Is Ground Water Used?
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, ground-water use increased from about 35 billion gallons a day in 1950 to about 87 billion gallons a day in 1980. Approximately one-fourth of all fresh water used in the nation comes from ground water. Whether it arrives via a public water supply system or directly from a private well, ground water ultimately provides approximately 35 percent of the drinking water supply for urban areas and 95 percent of the supply for rural areas, quenching the thirst and meeting other household needs of more than 117 million people in this nation.
Overall, more than one-third of the water used for agricultural purposes is drawn from ground water; Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas use more than 90 percent of their ground-water withdrawals for agricultural activities. In addition, approximately 30 percent of all ground water is used for industrial purposes.
Ground-water use varies among the states, with some states, such as Hawaii, Mississippi, Florida, Idaho, and New Mexico, relying on ground water to supply considerably more than three-fourths of their household water needs and other states, such as Colorado and Rhode Island, supplying less than one-quarter of their water needs with ground water.
Ground-Water Quality
Until the 1970s, ground water was believed to be naturally protected from contamination. The layers of soil and particles of sand, gravel, crushed rocks, and larger rocks were thought to act as filters, trapping contaminants before they could reach the ground water. Since then, however, every state in the nation has reported cases of contaminated ground water, with some instances receiving widespread publicity. We now know that some contaminants can pass through all of these filtering layers into the saturated zone to contaminate ground water.
Between 1971 and 1985, 245 ground-water related disease outbreaks, with 52,181 associated illnesses, were reported. Most of these diseases were short-term digestive disorders. About 10 percent of all ground-water public water supply systems are in violation of drinking water standards for biological contamination. In addition, approximately 74 pesticides, a number of which are known carcinogens, have been detected in the ground water of 38 states. Although various estimates have been made about the extent of ground-water contamination, these estimates are difficult to verify given the nature of the resource and the difficulty of monitoring its quality.
How Does Ground Water Become Contaminated?
Ground-water contamination can originate on the surface of the ground, in the ground above the water table, or in the ground below the water table. Table I shows the types of activities that can cause ground-water contamination at each level. Where a contaminant originates is a factor that can affect its actual impact on ground-water quality. For example, if a contaminant is spilled on the surface of the ground or injected into the ground above the water table, it may have to move through numerous layers of soil and other underlying materials before it reaches the ground water.
As the contaminant moves through these layers, a number of processes are in operation (e.g., filtration, dilution, oxidation, biological decay) that can lessen the eventual impact of the substance once it finally reaches the ground water. The effectiveness of these processes also is affected by both the distance between the ground water and where the contaminant is introduced and the amount of time it takes the substance to reach the ground water. If the contaminant is introduced directly into the area below the water table, the primary process that can affect the impact of the contaminant is dilution by the surrounding ground water.

TABLE 1. Activities That Can Cause Ground-Water Contamination

In comparison with rivers or streams, ground water tends to move very slowly and with very little turbulence. Therefore, once the contaminant reaches the ground water, little dilution or dispersion normally occurs. Instead, the contaminant forms a concentrated plume that can flow along the same path as the ground water. Among the factors that determine the size, form, and rate of movement of the contaminant plume are the amount and type of contaminant and the speed of ground-water movement. Because ground water is hidden from view, contamination can go undetected for years until the supply is tapped for use.
What Kinds of Substances Can Contaminate Ground-water, and Where Do They Come From?
Substances that can contaminate ground water can be divided into two basic categories: substances that occur naturally and substances produced or introduced by man's activities. Substances that occur naturally include minerals such as iron, calcium, and selenium. Substances resulting from man's activities include synthetic organic chemicals and hydrocarbons (e.g., solvents, pesticides, petroleum products); landfill leachates (liquids that have dripped through the landfill and carry dissolved substances from the waste materials), containing such substances as heavy metals and organic decomposition products; salt; bacteria; and viruses. A significant number of today's ground-water contamination problems stem from man's activities and can be introduced into ground water from a variety of sources.
Septic Tanks, Cesspools, and Privies
A major cause of ground-water contamination in many areas of the United States is effluent, or outflow, from septic tanks, cesspools, and privies. Approximately one fourth of all homes in the United States rely on septic systems to dispose of their human wastes. If these systems are improperly sited, designed, constructed, or maintained, they can allow contamination of the ground water by bacteria, nitrates, viruses, synthetic detergents, household chemicals, and chlorides. Although each system can make an insignificant contribution to ground-water contamination, the sheer number of such systems and their widespread use in every area that does not have a public sewage treatment system makes them serious contamination sources.
Agricultural Activities
Agricultural activities also can make significant contributions to ground-water contamination with the millions of tons of fertilizers and pesticides spread on the ground and from the storage and disposal of livestock wastes. Homeowners, too, can contribute to this type of ground-water pollution with the chemicals they apply to their lawns, rosebushes, tomato plants, and other garden plants.
Underground Storage Tanks
Between five and six million underground storage tanks are used to store a variety of materials, including gasoline, fuel oil, and numerous chemicals. The average life span of these tanks is 18 years, and over time, exposure to the elements causes them to corrode. Now, hundreds of thousands of these tanks are estimated to be leaking, and many are contaminating ground water. Replacement costs for these tanks are estimated at $1 per gallon of storage capacity; a cleanup operation can cost considerably more.
Abandoned Wells
Wells can be another source of ground-water contamination. In the years before there were community water supply systems, most people relied on wells to provide their drinking water. In rural areas this can still be the case. If a well is abandoned without being properly sealed, however, it can act as a direct channel for contaminants to reach ground water.
Accidents and Illegal Dumping
Accidents also can result in ground-water contamination. A large volume of toxic materials is transported throughout the country by truck, train, and airplane. Every day accidental chemical or petroleum product spills occur that, if not handled properly, can result in ground-water contamination. Frequently, the automatic reaction of the first people at the scene of an accident involving a spill will be to flush the area with water to dilute the chemical. This just washes the chemical into the soil around the accident site, allowing it to work its way down to the ground water. In addition, there are numerous instances of ground-water contamination caused by the illegal dumping of hazardous or other potentially harmful wastes.
Highway De-icing
A similar flushing mechanism also applies to the salt that is used to de-ice roads and highways throughout the country every winter. More than 11 million tons of salt are applied to roads in the United States annually. As ice and snow melt or rain subsequently falls, the salt is washed into the surrounding soil where it can work its way down to the ground water. Salt also can find its way into ground water from improperly protected storage stockpiles.
What Can Be Done After Contamination Has Occurred?
Unlike rivers, lakes, and streams that are readily visible and whose contamination frequently can be seen with the naked eye, ground water itself is hidden from view. Its contamination occurs gradually and generally is not detected until the problem has already become extensive. This makes cleaning up contamination a complicated, costly, and sometimes impossible process.
In general, a community whose ground-water supply has been contaminated has five options:

• Contain the contaminants to prevent their migration from their source.
• Withdraw the pollutants from the aquifer.
• Treat the ground water where it is withdrawn or at its point of use.
• Rehabilitate the aquifer by either immobilizing or detoxifying the contaminants while they are still in the aquifer.
• Abandon the use of the aquifer and find alternative sources of water

Which option is chosen by the community is determined by a number of factors, including the nature and extensiveness of the contamination, whether specific actions are required by statute, the geologic conditions, and the funds available for the purpose. All of these options are costly. For example, a community in Massachusetts chose a treatment option when the wells supplying its public water system were contaminated by more than 2,000 gallons of gasoline that had leaked into the ground from an underground storage tank less than 600 feet from one of the wells. The town temporarily provided alternative water supplies for its residents and then began a cleanup process that included pumping out and treating the contaminated water and then recharging the aquifer with the treated water. The cleanup effort alone cost more than $3 million.
Because of the high costs and technical difficulties involved in the various containment and treatment methods, many communities will choose to abandon the use of the aquifer when facing contamination of their ground-water supplies. This requires the community to either find other water supplies, drill new wells farther away from the contaminated area of the aquifer, deepen existing wells, or drill new wells in another aquifer if one is located nearby. As Atlantic City, New Jersey, found, these options also can be very costly for a community.
How Can You Clean Up Your Own Act?
So far, the emphasis has been on how you can help your community to protect its ground water through the development of community-wide policies and programs. But ground-water protection also begins at home. How do your personal habits affect your community's ground water quality? What can you, as an individual, do to protect your community's ground water?
How Do You Dispose of the Polluting Materials Used in Your Home?
You may be surprised to learn that the way you dispose of products you use at home can contribute to the contamination of your community's ground water. You may be even more surprised to learn that a number of the products you use at home contain hazardous or toxic substances. The truth is, however, that products like motor oil, pesticides, left-over paints or paint cans, mothballs, flea collars, weedkillers, household cleaners, and even a number of medicines contain materials that can be harmful to ground water and to the environment in general. (See Appendix 3 for a list of the types of products commonly found around homes and their potentially harmful components.) The average American disposes of approximately one pound of this type of waste each year. So, although the amount of any of these substances that you pour down your drain, put in your trash, or dump on the ground may seem insignificant to you, try multiplying it by the number of people in your community. That amount may not seem so insignificant.
Don't Pour It Down the Drain! Anything you pour down your drain or flush down your toilet will enter your septic system or your community's sewer system. Using this method to dispose of products that contain harmful substances can affect your septic system's ability to treat human wastes. Once in the ground, these harmful substances can eventually contaminate the ground water. In addition, most community wastewater treatment plants are not designed to treat many of these substances. Thus, they can eventually be discharged into bodies of surface water and cause contamination.
Don't Put It in the Trash! Community landfills also generally are not equipped to handle hazardous materials. As rain and snow pass through the landfill, the water can become contaminated by these products and eventually carry them into the ground water and surface water.
Don't Dump It on the Ground! Hazardous wastes that are dumped on or buried in the ground can contaminate the soil and either leach down into the ground water or be carried into a nearby body of surface water by runoff during rainstorms.
Do Use and Dispose of Harmful Materials Properly! There are very few options for disposing of hazardous products used in your home, so the first step may be to limit your use of such products. Whenever possible, substitute a nonhazardous product. When that is not possible, buy only as much as you need. Larger quantities may be less expensive, but they leave you with the problem of disposing of them safely. Finally, urge community officials to sponsor periodic household hazardous waste collection days if they have not established this policy. By helping your community to centralize collection of hazardous household wastes for appropriate disposal, you will be helping your community to make a major contribution toward protecting its ground water. The saying "Garbage in, garbage out" applies to more than computer data bases.
How Do You Take Care of Your Septic System?
Your septic system is designed to have its effluent discharge into a drainage field where it undergoes some decomposition by micro-organisms in the soil as it works its way down to the ground water. If your system is not pumped out frequently enough, solid materials can leave the tank and enter the drainage field. Any substances poured down your drains also will enter that drainage field and, eventually, the ground water.
To prevent ground-water contamination from your septic system:

• Have your septic system inspected annually and pumped out regularly; no chemical or other additive can be a substitute for this, and these septic system chemicals actually can prevent your septic system from functioning properly
• Be cautious about what you put into your system; substances like coffee grounds, cigarette butts, sanitary items, or fats do not break down easily in septic systems, and chemicals like paints, solvents, oil, and pesticides will go from your septic system into the ground water.
• Limit the amount of water entering your system by using water-saving fixtures and appliances.

How Does Your Garden Grow?
If you are a homeowner, you probably take a lot of pride in your home and the yard surrounding it. You may apply fertilizers to make your grass thick and green, your flowers colorful, and your vegetable crop abundant. You also may use pesticides to keep bugs from ruining what the fertilizers have helped to produce. What you may not know, however, is that many of these fertilizers and pesticides contain hazardous chemicals that can travel through the soil and contaminate ground water. If you feel you must use these chemicals, use them in moderation. This is not a case of "more is better." Your county extension agent can provide information on natural ways to control lawn, garden, and tree pests that can reduce reliance on chemicals.
What Else Can You Do?
Get informed and get involved! Around the country, citizens are getting involved in their communities, volunteering their time and energy, and making a difference. If you think one person can't change the system, help form a group. You, alone or as part of a group, can help to educate your family, friends, and neighbors about the importance of ground water to your community. And, after you've cleaned up your own act, you can help your community clean up its act.

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National Drinking Water Week Program for 3rd Graders

Below are questions in a logical order you can ask the class.  Get them involved and be creative.  This is supposed to be fun and interesting.

What is water?
Everything is made of atoms.  An atom is the smallest particle of an element like oxygen or hydrogen.  Atoms join together to make a molecule.  Water is a molecule made up of 2 hydrogen atoms (H+H) and 1 oxygen atom (0). 
Hence, the formula for water is H2O. 

Water is a valuable resource, why?
Water is almost as old as the earth and that’s pretty old.  Each water molecule is recycled over and over.  The amount of the earth’s water supply is about the same as it was millions of years ago.  That means a dinosaur could have used the water that you might be drinking today.  The water we have today is all the water we have tomorrow, so we must take care of it and protect it.

What do we use water for?
Cooking, bathing, cleaning, flushing toilets, growing food, and making electricity.

Do animals and humans need water?
Yes, human beings need about 2 quarts of water a day to digest food, transport wastes, keep cells alive, make blood and control temperature (At this time you may want to show the students how much 2 quarts of water is).  In fact humans are made up of 70% of water, that’s over half of our entire body.  Humans can live several weeks without food, but only 5 – 7 days without water.  WATER IS THE LIQUID OF LIFE.

How much water covers the earth’s surface?
80% of the earth’s surface is covered with water.  Of that 80% only a small portion is freshwater that we can actually use.  2% of the water is in the form of glaciers ice at the north and south poles, and the other 97% is saltwater which makes up the oceans.  Only 1% of the earth’s water is available for drinking water.

Water comes in three forms, what are they?
Water can be a solid, which is ice, or what happens to water when it is frozen.  Water can be a liquid, this is when water is wet and is a fluid.  Water can also be a gas, or a vapor and exists in the air around us and can form clouds. 

How does water go from one form to the next?
Well, it really depends on the temperature.  When it is really cold, 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius, water becomes a solid or ice.  When we see snow, we see raindrops which are frozen.  When it’s really hot, water becomes a gas.  When you’re boiling water, have you ever noticed the steam rising off the pan?  This hot water is giving off steam or vapors.  Well, that’s what happens to water when the temperature is equal to or greater than 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius.

What would happen if I put this ice cube in this jar of hot water?
What happens, it melts and changes its form and turns into a liquid.  If the water in the jar is hot enough, it turns into a vapor.  The ability of water to change from a solid to a liquid and a gas helps it cycle through our environment.

Does anyone know what cycle of water is called?
This is called the Hydrologic Cycle or water cycle.

Lets talk about the Hydrologic Cycle:
Lets pretend you are hanging out somewhere in the ocean near your neighborhood beach and you are part of the hydrologic cycle…where do you go from here?

First the suns rays would turn you into a gas and move you through the air until you became a part of millions and millions of water molecules to form a cloud.  This process is called evaporation.  Just like the water turning into steam when you are cooking.

Now you are hanging out in this big old cloud and then suddenly you hear thunder and see a bolt of lightening and you and a bunch of other water molecules form a liquid.  When water vapor forms a liquid, it is called condensation.  You and your friends fall from the sky in the form of rain or snow, depending on the temperature.  This is called precipitation.

You then as a liquid help to form puddles and fill ponds, lakes and rivers.  You may run off the ground and out to the ocean again or seep through the ground and be stored there as groundwater.  Water moving downward through the soil is called percolation. 

A tree may then take you up through its roots, and during those hot days, you leave the tree through its leaves as a vapor going back into the air.  This is called transpiration.

So, where is water naturally stored?
Water is stored in lakes, oceans, reservoirs, rivers and under ground.

Is all water safe to drink?
No.  Sometimes we have to treat the water before we drink it.    (You can expand on this.  For example, talk about streams and whether it’s safe to drink – it’s not.  Would you want to drink from a stream that has cattle in the water? )

What do we do when we treat the water?
We remove impurities from the water.

Should you drink water you find in the environment?
No, never drink water found in the environment unless you know it’s safe to drink.

How can we protect water?
We cannot pollute our rivers and streams by properly disposing of trash.  We can try not to waste water by fixing leaks in our homes and we can educate ourselves and our friends on water as a valuable resource.

Watershed Model:

This model shows how various land use activities can affect our water.  It simulates a watershed which has various land use activities, such as farming, industries, home owners, etc.  For example, if home owners fertilize their lawn and a heavy rain follows, what happens to the fertilizer?  Some of it will run off into the rivers/streams.

What is Water Conservation?
Water is a finite resource.  So, saving water and not using it when we need to is a way to conserve water.  This is called water conservation.  When you save water you are being WATER WISE.

What are some easy ways we can save water?

1. Stop a leaking faucet.  Check every faucet in your home for leaks.  Just a slow drip can waste 15 to 20 gallons a day or 6,000 gallons a year.
2. See if your toilet is leaking.  You can check this by adding a bit of food coloring to each toilet tank.  Without flushing the toilet, see if the color comes to the bowl.  If it does your toilet is leaking.  A toilet can leak as much as 100 gallons per day.
3. Don’t shower too long or fill the tub too full.  Five minutes for showering or 5 inches in the tub is plenty.
4. Try to use only automatic dishwashers and clothes washing machines when there is a full load.
5. Water your garden or lawn early in the morning or late at night, not during the heat of the day or when it is windy.

Does anyone know what a green thumb is?
It’s someone who can take grow and take care of plants well.

Now can anyone tell me what a Blue Thumb is?
It’s someone who cares about water and who takes care of it by protecting it and not wasting it.  So, get a Blue Thumb and give drinking water a hand!

Other things you might want to talk about:

Ask how many kids have ever been to Grand Caverns?  You can discuss that we live on karst and how it’s really important to protect our water from being contaminated.

Ask if the kids’ parents change the oil in their car?  If the answer is yes, ask what they do with the used oil.  Then tell them not to dump it on the ground or they might be drinking it one day.  Make sure they take the used oil to be recycled.

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Quick Things You Can Do To Help Protect The Water!

1. Put Up a Sign. Post signs in your source water protection area borders to notify people that any pollution in this area can affect the local drinking water quality.
2. Do Use and Dispose of Harmful Materials Properly! Don't Dump It on the Ground! Hazardous wastes that are dumped on or buried in the ground can contaminate the soil and either leach down into the ground water or be carried into a nearby body of surface water by runoff during rainstorms. You may be surprised to learn that a number of products you use at home contain hazardous or toxic substances. The truth is, however, that products like motor oil, pesticides, left-over paints or paint cans, mothballs, flea collars, weedkillers, household cleaners, and even a number of medicines contain materials that can be harmful to ground water.
3. Don't Overuse Pesticides or Fertilizers. You may apply fertilizers to make your grass thick and green, flowers colorful, and your vegetable crop abundant. You also may use pesticides to keep bugs from ruining what the fertilizers have helped to produce. What you may not know, however, is that many of these fertilizers and pesticides contain hazardous chemicals that can travel through the soil and contaminate ground water. If you feel you must use these chemicals, use them in moderation.
4. Volunteer in Your Community. Find a watershed or wellhead protection organization in your community and volunteer to help. If there are no groups active, consider starting your own. Use EPA's Adopt Your Watershed Page to locate groups in your community or visit WIN's "How to Start a Watershed Team". (anything for WHP)
5. Identify ways you can help prevent polluted runoff from your home, ranch or farm. Check out Give Water a Hand (for students) or the National Farm*A*Syst/Home*A*Syst Voluntary Assessment Programs (for farmers and homeowners) to find out how you can be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.
6. Organize a Storm Drain Stenciling Project. Produce and distribute a flyer or hanger for households to remind residents that storm drains dump directly into your local waterbody.
7. Prepare a presentation about your watershed for school or civic organization. Discuss water quality threats, including polluted runoff and habitat loss. Highlight things people can do to protect water quality, including limiting fertilizer use and eliminating herbicides and pesticides. Research your presentation using EPA's Nonpoint Source Program Pages.
8. Join in a beach, stream or wetlands cleanup.
9. Create a Wildlife Habitat in your Backyard, Workplace or Schoolyard. Download the Natural Resources Conservation Service's 28-page booklet that outlines 10 conservation projects . Or join the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program.
10. Sponsor a festival in your community to raise awareness about the need to protect drinking water. Find out how to organize an event using the Groundwater Foundation's guide, "Making Waves: How to Put on a Water Festival."

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